MILTON, Ga. — In her tenure as caretaker, Shirley Lowe has transformed Ebenezer Cemetery from disrepair into beautified sacred ground, bursting with flowers, and she can tell you the story of just about everyone buried there.
“I think God has blessed this cemetery,” Lowe said. “I mean, it’s sacred ground. It just happened bit by bit.” She often says the cemetery on Arnold Mill Road is a “patchwork quilt,” pieced together over the years.
Lowe had been studying her own family tree for a few decades but added a second tree on her ancestry.com account for Ebenezer Cemetery out of total fascination. She’s been involved in its restoration since 2018, the same year Ebenezer Methodist took ownership.
Of those buried, she said many were pillars in the community. Some names are familiar, like Lackey and Cox, attached to nearby roads. Others had been left behind, at least until Lowe used census data, obituaries and interactions with family members, whether visiting or through the internet, to uncover their life stories.
The grandson of Amy Martin Brewer, the second oldest marked grave, informed Lowe of his family’s legend — that Brewer had died of accidental poisoning. The cemetery’s oldest grave belongs to M.G. Elkins, a 14-year-old who died a year before the cemetery was deeded in 1853.
Some stories are scandalous. Grave conditions tell the tale of favorite second spouses, forgotten firsts. One grave belongs to a 3-year-old Jessie Nix, who died from an accidental shooting in the early 1900s. According to Nix’s obituary, his uncle came back from hunting one day and dropped his loaded, double-barrel shotgun.
“I particularly have a soft spot for children, babies, people who are buried in the cemetery that don’t have anybody else, don’t have any other family near them,” Lowe said.
She’s also big on honoring veterans and…
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